Government increasing audio description services to assist people who are blind or vision-impaired. The Federal Government has announced the formation of an Audio Description Working Party to examine options for increasing the availability of audio description services in Australia.
It follows a recent trial on ABC iview that provided 14 hours of audio-described content per week, accessible on a range of devices. As well as receiving a positive feedback from viewers, the trial showed that audio description can be successfully incorporated into programs which are made available online. Audio description is a verbal commentary that complements the underlying soundtrack of a television program, film, DVD or live performance.
Representatives from the broadcasting and streaming industries, audio description service providers and consumer representatives will be invited to participate in the working group, which will provide a report to government by December 31, 2017.
For Terms of Reference go to: https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/television/accessible_television